The playbook

# The cold job email that actually gets answered

A method, and the numbers behind it, from 86 cold emails sent to real UK
employers over four weeks.

**22 of them got a reply. That is 26%.** Cold outreach usually runs between 1%
and 5%. This is what the difference was made of.

You can apply all of it by hand, in Gmail, with no software at all. That is the
point of writing it down.

---

## 1. Who you send to matters more than what you write

This is the finding that surprised me most, so it goes first. Every email below
used the same rules, the same structure, the same sign-off. The only thing that
varied was who received it.

| Who you reached | Sent | Replied | Reply rate |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| A named human (`j.smith@`, `sarah.brown@`) | 34 | 13 | **38%** |
| A hiring inbox (`careers@`, `hr@`, `recruitment@`) | 10 | 5 | **50%** |
| A generic inbox (`info@`, `enquiries@`, `hello@`) | 42 | 4 | **10%** |
| **Everything** | **86** | **22** | **26%** |

Reaching a person or a hiring inbox rather than a generic one is worth roughly
**four times the reply rate** — 41% against 10%.

Two honest caveats. The hiring-inbox row is only ten emails, so read 50% as
"about as good as a named person," not as better. And these are all engineering
and technician roles in Scotland; a different trade may behave differently.

The main comparison is solid though: 44 emails to humans, 42 to generic inboxes,
and a gap far too wide to be noise.

### The one that beat everything

| How the address was found | Sent | Replied | Reply rate |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| Printed in the job advert itself | 9 | 6 | **67%** |
| Dug out of the company's website | 77 | 16 | 21% |

When an employer prints an address in the advert, they are telling you how they
want to be contacted. Almost nobody takes them up on it, because almost everyone
clicks Apply instead. Read the advert to the bottom, every time.

### So: how to find a human, in order

1. **Read the advert to the end.** Best odds of anything on this list.
2. **The company's own site** — `/contact`, `/careers`, `/about`, `/team`,
   `/jobs`. Small firms put the whole team on there with addresses.
3. **A hiring inbox** if no name is going. `careers@` and `hr@` are read by
   somebody whose job is to read them. `info@` is read by nobody in particular.
4. **Never guess.** No `firstname.lastname@company.com` because the pattern
   looked right elsewhere. A bounce costs you the sender reputation that gets
   the next thirty emails delivered, and the rest of this playbook with it.

If you cannot find a real address, send nothing. Of the listings processed here,
516 ended that way. That is fine. A speculative email to `info@` is worth less
than the ten minutes it costs you.

---

## 2. Write it so a human finishes it

Every letter in that 26% obeyed these. They are worth more as hard limits than
as suggestions, because the failure mode is always the same: it drifts longer,
vaguer and more flattering the moment you stop counting.

**Length: 60 to 90 words in the body.** Not counting the greeting or the
sign-off. Under 60 you have not said anything; over 90 it stops being read on a
phone between jobs.

**Line one names the exact role, plus one concrete detail from that specific
advert.** A product, a site, a shift pattern, a piece of kit, a standard, a
venue. This is the whole letter's credibility. It proves in eleven words that
you read the thing rather than mail-merged it, and everything after it is read
differently as a result.

**Then two or three numbered proof points.** Written `1.` `2.` `3.` on their own
lines. Each has to matter to *this* job. Specifics and numbers. Never list
everything you have ever done — the reader is scanning for fit, and a long list
reads as a person who has not worked out what the job needs.

**Then exactly one question.** One. A single easy thing to answer, and it is the
whole call to action. Two questions halve your reply rate because now the reader
has to compose rather than answer.

**Sign off the same way every time.** Name, phone number, "CV attached". Nothing
else.

**Subject line: eight words maximum, and it must name the role.** A concrete
hook — who you are or what you can do. Never "Application for X". No ALL CAPS,
at most one punctuation mark.

---

## 3. The banned list

The single highest-leverage thing here. Every one of these makes a letter read
as generated, and reading as generated is now fatal, because employers get
dozens a week that are.

Ban them outright. If a draft contains one, rewrite the draft:

> I hope this email finds you well · passionate · leverage · delve · seamless ·
> synergy · dynamic · thrilled · excited to apply · perfect fit · hit the ground
> running · fast-paced environment · proven track record · results-driven ·
> detail-oriented · team player · I am writing to · utilize · spearheaded ·
> esteemed · keen to · furthermore · moreover

Also out: exclamation marks, em dashes, and any markdown. All three are tells.

The rule that makes the list work is that it is **enforced, not requested.** If
you are drafting with an AI, asking it nicely to avoid these does not work — it
will comply for two paragraphs and drift back. Check the finished draft against
the list and rewrite if it hits. Doing that automatically is most of what the
software in this repository is for.

Plain English a tradesman would say out loud. Confident, warm, slightly
informal. No grovelling.

---

## 4. Following up is where most of the replies are

Three touches to one inbox capture around 93% of the replies a sequence will
ever earn. A fourth to the same person is pestering. What worked:

- **Day 4** — a short nudge on the same thread. No attachment.
- **Day 9** — one last nudge, same thread.
- **Day 16** — if you know a *second* real address at that company, one fresh
  approach to them, with the CV. A first email to a new person is a new
  conversation, which is the one good reason to go past three.
- **Any reply stops everything**, including an automated one.

Keep follow-ups threaded. A new thread reads as a new stranger.

---

## 5. Timing and volume

- **Tuesday to Thursday, 9–11am** replies best. Monday is triage, Friday is
  gone.
- **Anything under 48 hours old.** A week-old advert has a shortlist already.
- **One email per employer, ever.** Agencies are the exception — they carry
  many vacancies, so up to four, one per genuine vacancy.
- **Cap yourself.** Twenty a day, thirty seconds apart, is plenty. Volume is not
  the lever here; the tier table above is.

---

## 6. Tell the truth, in writing, before you start

Write down the things that are **not** true about you before you draft anything:
a ticket that lapsed, a degree you paused, a clearance that expired, a licence
you are working towards.

This matters more than it sounds. Asked to sell you, any AI will reach for
credentials you never mentioned, because that is what selling looks like in its
training data. It will write "SC cleared" because you said Royal Navy. It gets
found out at vetting, and it is the one mistake here that can follow you.

Decide the list once, keep it in front of you, and check every draft against it.

---

## 7. What none of this fixes

Being honest about the ceiling, because you will hit it:

- **A weak CV.** This gets the CV opened. It does not improve it.
- **Not meeting the spec.** A 26% reply rate includes plenty of polite noes. A
  reply is not an interview.
- **Saturation.** If everyone in your town runs this on the same 200 employers,
  it stops working. It works partly because almost nobody does it.
- **Bad targeting.** The fastest way to waste this method is to send it to jobs
  that pay less than the one you have.

---

## The whole thing on one page

1. Find a human. Read the advert to the end first; the address is often in it.
2. Never guess an address. No real address, no email.
3. 60–90 words. First line names the role and one detail from that advert.
4. Two or three numbered proof points, relevant to this job only.
5. Exactly one question.
6. Same sign-off every time: name, phone, CV attached.
7. Subject: eight words, names the role, never "Application for".
8. Check against the banned list and rewrite if it hits.
9. Nudge on day 4 and day 9, same thread. Stop on any reply.
10. Write down what you must never claim, and check every draft against it.